To be considered for the Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year award, you should be on a good defensive team. The last player to win the award that wasn’t on a team that ranked in the top 10 in defensive efficiency was Dikembe Mutombo in 1997-98. And 12 of the 15 winners since then (including each of the last six) played for teams that ranked in the top five.

And you can find plenty of great defensive players in this season’s top five teams in defensive efficiency. Indiana (1) has both Paul George and Roy Hibbert. Chicago (2) has Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson. Golden State (3) has Andre Iguodala and Andrew Bogut. Oklahoma City (5) has Serge Ibaka.

It’s hard to pick a Spur for DPOY candidacy when none of them have averaged 30 minutes per game. Beyond the top five defensive teams, Chris Bosh, Marc Gasol, Dwight Howard and DeAndre Jordan could be candidates. Their teams all rank in the top 12 in defensive efficiency, and Howard’s Rockets have only dropped out of the top 10 since he started missing games.

This season, we have SportVU data to tell us how well opponents shoot near the basket when a player is there defending it. And we can supplement that with data on how often opponents actually shoot near the basket when that player is on the floor. Big guys should get credit for keeping the other team away from the basket, after all.

There’s more to defense than protecting the rim, though. For a big man to be an impact defender, he has to be able to contain ball-handlers on pick-and-rolls. This is where a guy like Bosh can show his value on a team that defends like the Heat. It’s also where a guy like Drummond still has a lot of work to do.

SportVU has numbers on how efficiently opponents have scored when a player is the help defender on pick-and-roll.

Big men DPOY candidates, defending pick-and-rolls

Help Defender

Screens

Poss.

Team PTS

PTS/Poss

Andrew Bogut

725

688

624

0.91

Chris Bosh

1,120

1,063

1,051

0.99

Marc Gasol

765

726

759

1.05

Taj Gibson

715

695

699

1.01

Roy Hibbert

1,159

1,111

1,026

0.92

Dwight Howard

1,343

1,271

1,293

1.02

Serge Ibaka

961

924

925

1.00

DeAndre Jordan

1,494

1,441

1,500

1.04

Joakim Noah

974

939

879

0.94

There’s a lot that goes into these numbers. They’re from all possessions in which that player defended a ball-screen and the results (a score or no score) could be several passes away. So they do depend on his teammates quite a bit. Still, we can see that Bogut, Hibbert and Noah have distinguished themselves as both rim protectors and pick-and-roll defenders.

The other thing we can look at his how much of an impact these guys make on their team defensive numbers.

DPOY candidates, on and off the court

On floor

Off floor

Difference

Player

MIN

DefRtg

MIN

DefRtg

DefRtg

Rank

Andre Iguodala

1,976

96.6

1,745

103.1

-6.5

9

Chris Bosh

2,395

100.8

1,293

105.7

-4.9

20

Paul George

2,823

95.9

941

97.8

-1.9

74

Roy Hibbert

2,331

95.6

1,433

97.5

-1.9

76

Dwight Howard

2,310

102.1

1,368

103.5

-1.3

90

Andrew Bogut

1,688

99.1

2,033

100.2

-1.1

98

Taj Gibson

2,216

97.2

1,525

98.2

-0.9

105

Joakim Noah

2,619

97.5

1,122

97.9

-0.4

114

DeAndre Jordan

2,766

102.0

993

101.4

+0.6

139

Marc Gasol

1,775

102.8

1,941

101.5

+1.3

150

Serge Ibaka

2,475

101.3

1,198

99.8

+1.4

154

Rank = Among 239 players who have logged at least 1,000 minutes for a single team

If a team has better defensive numbers when a player is off the floor, it doesn’t mean that he’s a bad defender. The Thunder are typically defending the opponents’ best players when Ibaka is on the floor and their subs when he’s off.

Who these guys are being replaced with also plays a role. Hibbert’s the best rim protector in the league, but Ian Mahinmi is also a very good defender.

But the on-off court numbers make a strong case for Iguodala. The Warriors have been a much better defensive team with Iguodala on the floor and Bogut off than vice versa. Opponent shooting numbers, when you compare Iguodala to some of the league’s other good defenders at the small forward position, also make a case.

But Iguodala should definitely be in the conversation. He’s the biggest reason why the Warriors have jumped from 13th in defensive efficiency last season to third this year, and why the Denver Nuggets have gone in the opposite direction (from 11th to 21st).

33 Comments

I believe it comes down to Roy Hibbert and Andre Iguodala. You can take either one when deciding who’s been the best defender in the league, but Andre Iguodala has really transformed the Warriors into a very good defensive team. And if you don’t agree, just look at the Nuggets without him. He deserves to win this award. I wouldn’t be upset it Ro Hibbert won it though. Anyone else is a mistake. Sorry Joakim

“steals and blocks, which don’t really tell us much. Two of the league’s top five in total steals plus blocks ” For those concerning Davis. He’s one of my favourite players. But the fact is, you simply can’t win these awards without a winning record. It’s just not fair.

“Ron Artest (2003-04) and Gary Payton (1995-96) are the only perimeter players to win Defensive Player of the Year in the last 25 years.”
I think Dennis Rodman is more of a perimeter player (small forward) when he won in 1990 and 1991.

I think Roy hibbert should get it because of Indianas successful year as he can defend every player in the league with no problem he also comes out out with rebounds and blocked shots. This is coming from a miami heat fan

he only plays good against the heat, all you have to do is draw him a little bit out of position and he is basically useless. Don’t get me wrong, he is a great defender, but he is a little overrated as he is a beneficiary of Indiana’s great scheme. They have really good perimeter defenders that just funnel people in to him, he really doesn’t have to move a lot. He really struggles when he has to move. Honestly I think Noah is the better defender because he gives you the rim protection and great mobility. Igoudala should get the award, look at the Nuggets pre and post Iggy and the Warriors pre and post Iggy. That guy just does all the dirty work.

I might be Bulls biased here but Jimmy Butler warrants attention. The guy plays 40+ min a night and shuts down the best offensive player of the opposing team. Whats more is that he is filling the void the Bulls created when they traded Deng who should also get some love

Where are the stats for guards? You should also include the stats for steals, charges … How do you include the defensive plays that does not appear on the stat sheets? I think there is more to defence than block shots and standing tall.

I like the Serge protector. He does it all over the court and not just at the rim. He does an amazing job of helping off. The last guy I would want to see coming my way is Ibaka (and not just for the reasons Blake Griffin and Lebron James have to not like the guy).

$As an Aussie Bogut fan, Watching Bogut and Iguoldula play D this year has been good to watch. He won’t win but the amount of shots changed-challenged by Bogut is amazing. Now, only for M.Jackson to run a couple of plays through him on offence to make GSW less predictable with ball. Wishful thinking. Come on Aussie.

Last year was the joke of the century to appoint marc gasol DPOY. But for those that can connnect the dots we know that the plot, the plan and the ploy was to make sure LeBron did not win both awards. So it is- the “wtich-hunt” continues. Anyone operating on 1/4 ounce of common sense knows that Noah, Obaka, James, Chandler, Igudola, Howard, and Tony Allen (Gasol’s) teammate knows how the NBA functions, especially when it comes to their “never-ending” blatant hatred for LeBron James. Especially when it comes to him being an “independent thiking AA” That combination never goes over too well- if you catch my drift. If you are not “socially-engineered I know you do.

OR, the “NBA” didn’t coerce all the INDEPENDENT media members into voting for someone other than LeBron James–a player they are very much vest in promoting.

MAYBE the reason that Marc Gasol won is that he deserved it. MAYBE LeBron didn’t. He actually took a big step back last year, and he’s take a bigger step back this year. He’s entering the Kobe-realm of living off rep.

LOL, please tell me your joking.. lebron was the best defensive player and it wasn’t even close last year legitimately any real fan of basketball knows that, im not a lebron fan but he 100% deserved it he also should of got it the year tyson chandler won. They wanna give it to a big man, but a big man is not always deserving

this year it should be Noah or Iggy, they have the largest significance to their team. No one else should be in the conversation.

When you are the biggest part of an offense, its pretty hard to also be the best defender (why MJ was so great). Lebron is one of the best defenders, but he isn’t consistent, and he cant be because it would hurt the team to much on offense. aside from noah, and iggy (both all around players, with james) the rest are only defensive players (the ones who actually have a chance to win). Hibbert doesn’t do much on offense, and when he does, its for 1 game here and there, same with gasol (but he creats more), Ibaka, is ok but not a great threat, and Jordan cant put anything in unless its an oop or a put back rebound.